Mike Shanahan was uncomfortable.
From a box at Sports Authority Field at Mile High on Sunday, Oct. 9, Shanahan witnessed the picking apart the Broncos in a game that should have been dubbed The Mike Shanahan Bowl. More than a dozen of his former coaches and players stood along the sideline.
On one side was his son, Atlanta offensive coordinator Kyle Shanahan. On the other side was his former coordinator and disciple, . And somewhere in a luxury box watching was his former quarterback-turned-general manager, .
“That was probably as hard a situation to deal with because of my background with both Gary and John and the , and my son as the offensive coordinator for another team,” Mike Shanahan said. “I’ve never been through that situation. It was actually uncomfortable for me being in the box.”
That was the game when Kyle, 37, designed a plan that walloped the Broncos and their leaky run defense and got nearly 290 total yards out of his running backs in a 23-16 Falcons victory. The kid who learned under his father, who watched Elway become the most successful player in Broncos history, who got his first gig as a coordinator under Kubiak, showed all of what he learned, and much more.
On Monday, Kubiak stepped down as head coach. And now Kyle Shanahan is (so far) who could potentially take over. He is scheduled to interview Saturday. The Broncos will interview special-teams coordinator Dave Toub on Friday and next week will talk to Vance Joseph, the ’ defensive coordinator.
Plan A for Elway probably will never change; a is the goal every season. But over the years, the path to get there has been refined.
“I think in today’s world when dealing with players, itap a different game now than it used to be,” Elway said Monday. “There’s a lot more to that as far as dealing with the different personalities and kids today. So much of it is because everybody is so close. … Obviously there are a lot of young guys out there that have a lot of potential and very bright young guys, so hopefully we can get one of those.”
But there’s a shadow trailing Kyle Shanahan, one that arrived with him to the Broncos’ headquarters as a toddler in the early 1980s and has followed him as he has risen through the NFL coaching ranks.
“I studied every potential X’s and O’s play and issue possible,” Kyle Shanahan told The Denver Post a decade ago. “I spent my whole life working on that. My goal was that any question a player could have about anything on the field, I’d be able to answer it. There’s more to it. I’m learning that now. You have to communicate with your guys. The guys have to feel comfortable with you. They have to trust you, or they’ll tune you out.”
As the son of a two-time Super Bowl-winning Broncos coach, Kyle enters his candidacy with a history and skepticism that neither he nor anyone else may be able to shake. Not completely, anyway. He was by his father’s side when the Broncos won back-to-back Super Bowls. He was at his side again when he was hired as his dad’s offensive coordinator in Washington, from 2010-13.
“I didn’t really know whether he just got the job because he was Mike’s son or whether he was legit,” admitted former Broncos and Redskins offensive tackle Tyler Polumbus, who played at Cherry Creek High School a few years after Kyle Shanahan did. “I played for a lot of offensive coordinators. Kyle is hands down my favorite. He is an offensive lineman’s best friend, because he builds everything off the run, including the passing game. I was honestly blown away by how smart he is and how well our offense worked, because everything in the passing game for him comes off huge chunk plays. Itap just an extremely effective offense.”
Kyle Shanahan’s offense in Atlanta is built off the West Coast zone blocking system his father and Kubiak ran.
“But the way he teaches the concepts is different,” Polumbus explained. “Especially in the running game, the landmarks for the offensive linemen are much wider. Everything stretches much farther. Running backs will keep the ball to the play side, whereas with Gary, almost everything falls back to the backside. Itap the same offense, same terminology, but Kyle has evolved it into a different beat.”
For the Broncos’ quarterbacks, and , a Shanahan hire would offer a smooth transition.
For the Broncos’ offense as a whole, he would offer hope of improvement.
Last year, his first as the Falcons’ coordinator, Atlanta averaged 374.1 yards overall, and 273.7 passing yards, ranking seventh and sixth, respectively, in the NFL. This season, Shanahan has turned the Falcons into one of the most explosive offenses in the league. Atlanta finished 11-5 and ranked No. 1 in the NFL in both yards per play (6.7) and scoring (33.8 points per game).
Such numbers were pipe dreams for the Broncos this season. But Elway is searching for more than gaudy numbers in his next head coach.
“If you know how to motivate a football team and to be able to be on the same page with a football team, I think it is as important,” Elway said. “Obviously you want a guy that can manage people and understand what he wants to do on the offensive side as well as the defensive side, but also can manage coaches and manage players, which I think is the biggest part of that job.
“This is a great place to work, but the expectations are high.”
Shanahan2.0
Kyle Shanahan, 37
Offensive coordinator, Atlanta Falcons
• Son of former Broncos head coach Mike Shanahan.
• Played at Duke before transferring to Texas in 2000.
• Started his NFL coaching career as an offensive quality control coach for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers (2004-05).
• Hired to Gary Kubiak’s staff in Houston, rising from receivers coach (2006) to quarterbacks coach (2007) and then offensive coordinator (2008-09). Was the youngest coordinator in the NFL at age 28.
• Joined his father’s staff in Washington as offensive coordinator from 2010-13. Redskins became first team in history to pass for at least 3,400 yards and rush for 2,700 in same season.
• Was the ‘ offensive coordinator in 2014. Cleveland averaged 324.6 yards, including 108 rushing, that season. Resigned in January 2015 and was hired by Atlanta.
• Falcons averaged 374.1 yards (seventh in NFL) and 273.7 passing yards (sixth) in 2015.
• In 2016, Falcons finished 11-5 and clinched NFC South to return to playoffs for first time since 2012. Atlanta led league with 6.7 yards per play and 33.8 points per game in regular season.
• Scheduled to interview for head coaching jobs in Denver, Jacksonville, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
